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Dawn of War Professional, also known as DoWpro, is a competitive gaming mod for Dawn of War. The mod focuses on returning to, and enhancing, the gameplay-experience of Vanilla Dawn of War (i.e. pre-Winter Assault). Player vs Player permeates the entire game. The mod can challenge you to grow as an RTS player. Features Gameplay * Units do not become obsolete. At every Tier they add value. * The entire Tech Tree is available to you, with a level of balance that exceeds the original game. * Increased range of strategy and tactics. Every game mechanic has been examined for veteran RTS players who seek a deeper competitive gaming experience. * Racial uniqueness is emphasized. For instance, Swarm races, like the Orks and the Imperial Guard, fit their theme. * Expect relentless battles for map control, dominance and advantage, with a feel closer to that of classic Dawn of War. Micro-management * Vastly improved pathing. * The skill ceiling has been increased. * Removal of the Fire on the Move Accuracy Penalty implemented in Dark Crusade. 'Run and Shoot' unit control is back. * Return of the Hard Counter system. Everything can be countered. * Many outplay opportunities have been introduced, through a significantly tweaked combat system. Macro-management * The tech tree is flatter, with units being available earlier in the tech tree. * The economic system has been reworked, with a focus on meaningful economic decisions. * More frequent, smaller, decisions are made, which reward timing window attacks and multi-tasking. There exists dynamics to army building decisions that barely existed in the original game: * What approach will you use to increase your army size and strength? * Will you build towards concentrating your force in one area or disperse it across the map? * Strike a balance between hard and soft counter units to devastate the enemy. Balance * The original game for a long time has had problems with patching, and as of a long time ago no longer receives balance patches. * Dowpro has two versions: official and test. Test receives patches rapidly, as we try out new things. Official receives patches on a more relaxed pace, once we're happy with the results of the test. The community regularly plays on both. * As we've had active balancing for a long time, the game is no longer about how you manage an ever escalating series of imba units. Content * Content is only added with care, with an eye to improving the strategy and tactics of the game. * The Dawn of Skirmish AI has been introduced and customised for the mod (used with permission). * Vanilla content has been reintroduced. * DoWpro also implements new content from certain other mods (used with permission). * A range of cosmetic improvements (too many to list) have been carefully done to modernise the content, without introducing bugs into the game. Factions Space Marines * Space Marines are an elite ranged focused Heavy Infantry army with supporting melee elements. ** The Astartes are often outnumbered, but rarely outgunned. ** Possessing unmatched force amplification and health regeneration abilities, their overall strategic goal is to achieve a critical mass of firepower that cut down the enemy piecemeal. * They have the most potent buffs and auras, which all overlap and stack. ** Force Commander: *** Battle Cry (AURA: +40% DPS, +200 max morale) *** Rapid Deployment (SQUAD: -15% reload time, -80% set up time) *** Inspiring Aura (AURA: +10% DPS, -5% ranged damage received) ** Chaplain. *** Litany of Hatred (SQUAD: +30% DPS, +5 melee charge range, enables charge modifiers) *** Catechism of the Righteous Emperor (AURA: +20% speed, -40% ranged and melee damage received, +6 health regen/sec, +50% mass) ** Apothecaries. *** Narthecium (AURA: +3.5 health regen/sec) * The Astartes have the advantage in morale and anti-morale warfare: ** Space Marine leaders tend to provide the highest morale maximums. ** Librarian's Weaken Resolve cuts the enemy max morale in half for the duration. ** Access to the promethium canisters research, increasing morale damage of all their flamers. * The greatest Astartes abilities tend to have a longer cooldown than that of the other races. ** Word of the Emperor, which both the Chaplain and Librarian have access to, must be used carefully. Though it prevents death it also reduces health regeneration by half for the duration. * The Space marines have no access to Daemon armour. Though, they have the greatest access to Terminator-equivalent armour. ** Such armour mitigates the anti-heavy infantry weaponry of hostile foes, such as plasmaguns and dark reapers' launchers. ** Those units are Tactical Space Marine Sergeants, Apothecaries, Grey Knights, Terminators and Assault Terminators. * Lascannon-equipped units, such as Predators and Landraiders, are some of the most lethal yet costly anti-tank units in the game. They are venerated units that must be protected at all costs. Chaos * Chaos forces play similarly to the Space Marines, but with a greater focus on melee combat and daemonic support units. ** Whereas the Astartes abilities tend to focus on augmenting their battle brothers, Chaos abilities are about violently destroying their enemy. * Hero wargear augments the Chaos Lord (for example, with the Scythe) so that he can retain his combat monster status in later Tiers. * Heretic's Forced Labour (which allows it to construct buildings at the expense of its HP) shapes the build times and match-ups of the race. ** The Heretic is an easy target, which affects the very early game. ** The Chaos Space Marine deploys earlier than an equivalently built Tactical Space Marine, creating early game asymmetry. ** Chaos structures build slower than Space Marines without Forced Labour, but faster with it. ** Heretic gains faster health regeneration in Tier 2, which stacks with the health regeneration aura that Tier 2 structures provide. * Units in dowpro no longer become obsolete in later Tiers. ** As such, Chaos has vastly more options than before. ** Chaos units getting made obsolete and replaced with newer chaos units was core focus of their race in later DoW expansions. * Access to daemon armour (which is now countered by flamers, among other weapons and abilities) now shapes their mid/late game. * The Sacrificial Circle is available in Tier 1, allowing horror-based early game strategies or faster tech switches to counter plasma weapons or dark reapers. * With the sole exception of the Chaos Predator, their vehicle choices are more versatile yet more limited than the Space Marines. They cover many roles: ** The Defiler - artillery, melee, anti-daemon, morale damage, soft counter infantry and vehicles, hard counters structures ** The Chaos Dreadnought - hard counter anti-tank, rapid health regeneration in melee, teleportation. Technically has Daemon armour, so counters anti-tank weapons but losses to anti-Daemon weapons. ** The Chaos Rhino - anti-tank and disruption via the Chaos Havoc Launcher, anti-ranged DPS via smoke screen, anti-morale/light structure via combi-flamer, transport Orks * Orks are rebalanced to be the melee swarm race, like in vanilla. ** DPS has been rebalanced for many units. Units no longer are obsolete. *** Slugga Boy rushes early are scary. Their DPS/Cost is higher than Tactical Space Marines. *** Shoota Boyz get their 2nd ranged DPS upgrade later than other races (in Tier 3), though it increases Fire on the Move accuracy. *** Mega Armoured Nobz are combat monsters (50% more expensive than the base game, and far far more scarier). *** In Soulstorm, Stormboyz previously had twice the DPS as Slugga Boyz, but only cost 30% more. Likewise, Nobz previously did 3x more DPS, while costing approx 60% more. *** Power Klaws are significantly more dangerous. Even a Slugga Boy squad left alone in a base can wreck havoc. ** Researches reworked to encourage horde gameplay and to allow alternate tech strategies. *** Even More Choppy are now balanced between all Ork units (in the base game, other Ork units got +35% DPS increase while Sluggas only got +10% DPS). *** More Burny research is now Burny 'n Boom. Increasing all rokkit launcha and burnas DPS (from only slugga boy burna DPS). *** More Choppy research now increases Power Klaw DPS (in addition to all choppas). It also increases Stikk bomb DPS. * Orks dominate wars of attrition through sheer numbers. ** Their ability to out reinforce enemies mean resource leads are pressed even further. *** In-combat reinforcement penalties are minimised compared to other races. *** Orks out-squad most other races - as a result of their unique population system - furthering their advantage in reinforcement times. ** Ork resource gain replenishes faster in-combat. They enjoy endemic violence. * The mob aura system was reworked. ** Orks are fearsome when amassed as a horde. ** Enables a tactical choice between few large squads or many small squads. ** Mob values reworked *** Units have different levels of cost efficiency when it comes to increasing mob value, adding an additional dimension to gameplay. *** Squad leaders give more mob value for cost than squad members. * As a race Orks should be highly considerate of how they initiate a fight. What unit leads the charge? What unit follows up? Which units seek to sabotage the enemy? Which unit seeks to flank the enemy base? ** There is no obvious option and there are many valid ones, which vary based on circumstance. Eldar * Eldar, being more like Vanilla, are the most hard counter race. They have to make careful decisions between: ** highly specialised and effective units. ** less specialised soft counter units that are less efficient but more flexible. * They are the shadow race that are shaped around Fleet of Foot, Teleports and the Webway. * They are, perhaps, the masters of unpredictability. * Eldar population system has been balanced. ** Aspect Warriors (Banshees, Fire Dragons, Warp Spiders and Dark Reapers) are 3 population units (from 2), being elite units. ** In the early game, Eldar makes tradeoffs between guardians (which are 2 pop), rangers (which are 1 pop) and aspect warriors. ** Webway Portals require a costly Add-On (they are lost and need to be rebuilt when the structure is destroyed) to provide population, to encourage counter play. This means that Eldar is encouraged to hide these specific structures or risk base bashing. ** The Avatar no longer provides population (and instead costs population, in particular 2 infantry pop, 3 support pop) as: *** Eldar is a race focused around elite units, not horde units. *** Eldar now make a considered decision to build the Avatar, as it means less vehicles and infantry. *** Inspiring Aura now provides +50% morale regeneration and +10% DPS to nearby units (instead of morale immunity and a population increase). * The Eldar build multiple Soul Shrines, which can be done even in Tier 1, in addition to the usual Tier 2 / Tier 3 research that all races have. ** In order to unlock researches and advanced units, at the appropriate Tier. ** It can be worth building 2-3 Soul Shrines in Tier 1, just to increase the size of Aspect Warrior squads. * The Webway portal's Shroud (which cloaks nearby buildings) and Relocation Matrix have been modified such that it is used in 1v1s. * The Webway Network now has 3 slots (from 10) to permit isolated guerrilla warfare and ambushes, while permitting counterplay. * Many units have to be exact in their target selection and micro to be effective. Being glass cannon they are high risk high reward. Imperial Guard * The Imperial Guard are rebalanced towards significantly outnumbering the enemy (a horde race), where a guardsmen squad costs 100 requisition (from 160). * Mini-Heroes (Commissar, Priest, Psyker) have been reworked. ** Each provides an aura (and they all stack), which is in addition to the abilities they get: Commissar provides increased ranged DPS aura, Priest provides increased health regeneration aura, Psyker provides ranged damage reduction aura. ** The Mini-Heroes are available in Tier 1, providing further variation in the early game (psykers were Tier 1.5, priests were Tier 2). * In order to defeat the superhuman warriors available to other races, the IG rely on a combination of: ** Unmatched disruption ** Dense multi-layered formations and overlapping fields of firepower. ** Siege warfare, using tunnel networks to compete for map control. ** Clashes multiple fronts at once, either wars of attrition or raids, by utilizing their numerical advantage. * Conflicts often involves the Imperial Guard creating a stalemate, with both forces seeking to break it to their advantage. * Expect atrociously high casualty rates even in victory. * They use Fire Support Resource, instead of Support Cap, for vehicles, which promotes the purchase of infrastructure or infantry to build more vehicles. * Each Depot add-on at the Mechanized Command increase the structure's production speed, enabling IG to deploy armoured companies faster than other races. Tau * Tau emphasize mobile firepower that is rebalanced towards the use of infiltration, jetpacks and ambushes. * Tau can now go both Mont'ka and Kauyon, allowing for far more squad combinations. Their tech tree branches at Tier 2 and can merge back again at Tier 2.5 or Tier 3. * Tau have a wide range of soft and hard counter units, with relatively few special weapons. * The Tau emphasize teamwork between different unit types, rather than the massing of one unit type. * Abilities tend to focus on disrupting or focus firing units. * The Tau emphasize cooperation between their Elite and Troop units, with certain Elite units requiring a certain number of Troops to be on the field before they can be deployed. * The Tau lack specialised Squad/Support Cap Increase researches as such, and instead rely upon multi-purpose Teachings researches. * Their Elite units (Broadsides, Crisis Suit, Greater Knarloc, Kroot Shaper and Krootox) require Teachings researches to be purchasable, in addition to the relevant tech structure. Consequently, base bashing the Tau HQ has a minor effect on what units they have available. Necrons * The Necrons don't engage in war so much as they engage in raids, and they do so by means that defy the capabilities of the lesser races: ** Through the self resurrection of units, as their infantry can only reinforce in proximity of a Monolith. ** By undermining the sight radius of enemies, so that they cannot fire their special weapons at their maximum range. ** Locking a portion of the enemy force in stasis, such that the rest can be slain piecemeal. ** Through solar pulse, which allows them to shut down the weapons of an entrenched enemy, forcing them to relocate. ** Through phase shifting, which allows them the Necron army a moment of respite while they gap close or prepare for teleportation. * Teleportation shapes the strategy of the entire race. Their infantry zap from point A to point B. They have four means to do so (each with a separate cooldown, allowing multiple teleports in quick succession): ** Displacement Arc, which enable up to 2 squads in proximity to one another to teleport. ** Ascension Grid, which enables all Necron infantry to teleport. ** Veil of Darkness, which enables all Necron infantry in proximity to the Necron Lord to teleport. ** When morale broken, which enables teleportation for free. * They can only teleport to three locations: the Necrontyr Pillar which is exists temporarily and is deployed by the Necron Lord, to Listening Posts and to the Monolith. * Necron builder scarabs must deploy Slag Volcanos in order to build a Generator on top. These cannot be placed within near proximity of each other. * The Necrons must acquire map control in order to reduce their build times, and to give them space to deploy more Generators. Dark Eldar * Dark Eldar are a soft counter Fleet of Foot race, combining aspects of the Eldar while still being notably distinct. ** The Archon, Haemonculus, Tortured Slave (builder) and Mandrakes (via an upgrade) can deploy temporary Webway Portals enabling rapid hit and run assaults. ** Eldar research technologies faster than the Dark Eldar, however. ** Throughout the game, like Eldar, DE units become more glass cannon. Infantry HP upgrades increase their HP by 15%, instead of 20%. * They do not focus on melee or ranged, unlike the other races. ** They have two Tier 1.5 structures, one focused on ranged researches (Haemonculus Laboratory), the other melee researches (Wych Cult Arena). ** Building both structures increases squad sizes of infantry. ** Squad leader melee weapon upgrades are available earlier than other races (Tier 1.5 vs Tier 2). * Dark Eldar have a Tier 1 tempo advantage over other races. ** The Archon is available from the HQ, allowing the construction of a Warrior and Archon simultaneously. ** They only need 1 builder to build multiple structures simultaneously, making fast Tier 1.5 openings stronger. ** However, to a certain extent DE lack access to significant anti-morale capabilities until Tier 2 (other races tend to get flamers at Tier 1.5). * The soul powers have been reworked: ** Most have a lower cooldowns and lower soul costs, encouraging more frequent engagements. DE units are balanced around the expectation of using them. ** Rekindle Rage has completely reworked to be a part of the defining feature of the race and counter system: *** As Dark Eldar have far less armour type diversity than other races (having mostly have light infantry units), they are susceptible to certain special weapons such as Heavy Bolters and Grenade Launchers. Rekindle Rage temporarily alters the armour type of the unit, such that they are countered by different weapons. *** Rekindle Rage also rallies the squad (to help them counter morale weapons), which provides secondary utility. *** Rekindle Rage is now Tier 1 (from Tier 3). ** Piercing Vision increases the sight range of a unit and provides short range keen sight (from only 30 keen sight), making it multi-purpose. Use it to: *** Out maneuver the enemy by seeing them before they see you. *** Deal with infiltrators. *** Pick enemies off at long range, especially if they're entrenched in Heavy Cover. ** Screams of the Damned reduces maximum morale to 1/4 (from 1/2) and inflicts morale damage. Its now Tier 2 (from Tier 1). *** As morale damage reduces movement speed, instead of increasing it, this ability provides further secondary/tertiary utility: such as helping you escape a conflict, helping you ambush units or helping you deal with dedicated melee units. ** Corrosion also applies health degeneration and has a larger AOE. It is now Tier 3 (from Tier 2). ** Rend Soul was removed, as we have not yet found valid usecases for it. ** Certain researches now have a soul cost, in particular: *** Daughters of Pain. *** Incubi Researches. *** Mandrake Shadow Skin researches. *** Warp Beasts researches. Links * https://discordapp.com/invite/0iv7JxFQwCVCSXak - Dowpro Discord Community * http://www.moddb.com/mods/dowpro - Mod DB page. Category:Browse Category:Mechanics